Cycles
by Rayless Night
Summary: Gig and Revya take a different road home. Bad things happen when you take unfamiliar paths.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Soul Nomad and the World Eaters is the property of Nippon Ichi Software. Rating is for language, adult themes and strong violence. Some content may be disturbing and/or triggering.  
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* * *

**Cycles**

1

The savior of the world frowned at the fly that had just drowned itself in her cup of raspberry juice, then emptied the cup on the cobblestones next to her table. She sighed, crossing her right leg over her left, leaned her elbow on the small round table, and went back to watching the children across the street.

In a moment, a shadow fell across her. "It's true, no sign of him. Damn, I knew this would happen. I told you."

Revya shook her head. "I just can't believe it's come to this. We used to be so tight with Vitali."

Gig slumped down in the chair across from her, angling his long scythe over the chair back. "Seven years is enough to sour any relationship."

Revya went back to watching the kids. "Eight years."

"Seven years."

"Eight. You lost a year back there, remember?"

"Bitch." He drummed his fingers against the table, then looked over his shoulder to see what she was studying. And groaned. "No, no, no, you're not getting ideas, are you?"

One of the four children was bouncing a gray rubber ball. Revya admired his hand-eye coordination. "What ideas?"

"You know, widdle happy shit-covered babies wunning awound deh house."

Revya rolled her eyes. "I was just watching them. They're really well-behaved. See, they don't even have a guardian, but they're not running off and causing trouble. They can't be older than five."

"Big whoop. There's something screwy about them."

Revya frowned again, wondering if Gig were just making noise or had actually noticed something she hadn't. She gave the group another look, then straightened and returned her attention to the other side of the table. "So Vitali's cut loose, huh? This is bad."

"This is horrific. Remember when he banned us from the restaurant all those years ago? It took two years to get back into his good graces. And now he's run out and left no forwarding address. The restaurant is empty." He groaned again, tilting his head back. "In other words, all the things that made this life worth living are gone."

"I didn't think we ate_ that_ much last time we visited." Revya stood. "Well, there's always Christophe. He'll feed us hotpods."

Gig also stood. "Something about Christophe's always bothered me. Besides, his hotpods suck. Everyone's hotpods suck if they aren't Vitali's."

Revya re-strapped her black claymore, which she'd slung across the chair back. "Well, maybe we should just head back to the Village. Danette will fry us if we aren't back by evening. Especially me. She's got another guy she wants me to vet."

Gig swore under his breath. "The last one had a harem in Orviska. The cow loses more brain cells in a day than most people do during three life-cycles."

"She's persistent. It's an...endearing quality." Leaving the shade of the street-side café, she brushed her hip against his as she passed and pretended not to notice.

So, apparently, did he, catching up to her as she crossed the street, heading towards the east gates of the city. As they passed the group of children, one looked up. Revya smiled at him - then her smile flickered into a frown and her steps slowed. The boy stared up at her, chewing his ragged lower lip, his eyes huge with fear. Revya swallowed. Was it the weapons? Was that all he was scared of? She didn't want to think she was frightening.

She glanced at the other three. Another boy bent low over his ball, not looking at anything else. The other two were pretty twin girls, sitting cross-legged. They glanced up at her, and one whispered to the other. Disquieted, Revya lengthened her strides to catch up to Gig.

* * *

They took a different route back to the Village. Danette had found it last week and said it had cut down her traveling time by a half hour. What she hadn't mentioned was that it was a rock scramble.

"Gig, stop it," Revya warned, dodging a flying rock. "You're going to kill me."

"I should kill us both," Gig snapped from up the slope. "Put us out of our misery." He struggled up another incline, shale and rock shards clattering down, then disappeared from view. Taking a deep breath, Revya hoisted herself up after him. The rocks were by no means high, but they were large, and there wasn't getting around them.

Revya sat a moment to rest, staring at the path from her new vantage. The rocks seemed to stretch out forever, an illusion not helped by the westering sun. "What do you think?"

Gig paced to the extreme edge of the rock. "I think, in the vaguest sense of the phrase, we're going in the right direction. I don't think we'll land in the Nereid palace."

"It'd be better if we did." Revya swung to her feet, the wind beating across her. "We'd know where - what the-?"

Gig turned back to her. "Noticed, did you?"

Pressing her finger to her upper lip to control her gag reflex, Revya scanned the rocks. Gig crossed to her side, looked around for half a moment, then nodded down slope.

A naked body lay wedged between two rocks, blue-stained and bulbous. For a moment, Revya wanted it to be an animal's, but then she saw the hands.

They kept heading west. To Revya's mild surprise, Gig forbore from mentioning the corpse until she brought it up, after they'd outpaced the smell. "I guess he was robbed."

"Recently, by the looks of things," he answered. "Or smell." After seeing the body, they'd both been watching their surroundings more carefully.

"I wonder what he was." Revya was glad her voice came evenly; she'd seen death before, there was no need to honor it with fear. "A crushed Whirwin, maybe. He was too small for a human." She stretched her sword arm, then rotated the shoulder. "I guess he's reentered the cycle then."

Gig shrugged. "Maybe his next life will treat him better. But I doubt it."

"What? I thought you told me karma didn't have anything to do with it." Granted, Gig didn't often talk about the secrets of birth and rebirth, but he'd let a few things slip. "I thought once you die, it's over. Everything from your past life is gone. Or-" she added, recalling the strange dreams she'd had eight years go, as well as Gig's own manipulation of the cycle, bringing himself back with his memories "-it's supposed to be."

"Bad things always happen," he responded, and she assumed he wasn't going to give her a real answer. But he continued. "Everything works by cycles."

Revya braced her leg on the slope of another boulder, jogging clumsily up. "I don't follow."

"You're born. You die. You're born again. You die again. You're born again. Now, I know it's really difficult, but if you study it hard for a long time, you'll notice a pattern."

"Okay." She put her arm out to help him up after her, but he ignored it, using his scythe like a grappling hook. "But not everything works that way."

"Sure they do." He was outpacing her. She scrambled up the slope, not about to give him any advantage. "Ever heard of seasons? They're a cycle. Ever seen water? Another cycle. Rocks like this stupid one? Bingo." They paused a moment on that boulder, catching their breath. "Even your body. The way you breathe: a cycle. Your blood cycling through your heart. That crappy 'time of month' thing you put me through when we were fused. A cycle. Don't try to argue with me again."

"Yeah?" She raised an eyebrow. "What about the Master of Death choosing where and when he's reborn and keeping all of his memories? What was _that_?"

Gig leaned against the haft of his scythe. "That was me improving the cycle."

An arrow shot between the two of them.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Revya sprang away from Gig, managing to unsheathe the onyx blade as she swung around.

"Shit!" Turning, she saw Gig dodge another arrow, this coming from the opposite direction. So she looked in neither direction, wheeling to face the Sepp swordswoman attempting to ambush her. She parried the Sepp's blade, hearing a simultaneous clash behind her - Gig must have also acquired a playmate. The Sepp's sharp cloven hoof punched towards her. She dodged slowly, earning herself a long welt across the shoulder. The Sepp's sword was nothing more than a blurred flash - she parried again - their swords collided so hard that the Sepp rebounded a step. Shifting ground, Revya thought she might've have seen more fighters closing in. She altered her usual, comfortable slash, driving the claymore's large pommel against the Sepp's breast-bone, knocking her back. In that moment of freedom, she saw there were reinforcements, fighters, some archers, an unmasked Dracon.

"Gig!" she shouted, turning. "We can't defend here."

Gig, facing a Redflank, slashed his legs out from under him. "Save your breath then."

They ran.

It wasn't easy. Revya hadn't the time to sheathe her weapon, and it wasn't joy to run flat out with an enormous sword in one hand. Secondly, their bursts of speed were intermittent, stymied by the terrain. She skittered down slope after Gig, fighting to keep her balance, stumbled into a run until they came to the next rock. She wasted a moment sheathing her sword, and an arrow grazed her exposed side. She leapt up the flank of the rock, grabbing blindly for finger-holds.

There was a slight slope on the summit of this boulder. They might have put their backs to it, giving themselves room to retreat, but they'd be easy shots for the archers.

_Don't think about "might haves",_ Revya reprimanded herself. The slope on the far side of the rock was so sheer they had to go down crawling backwards. _Think about what you can actually do._

They hit relatively level ground and sprinted. Revya wasn't sure, but she thought she heard hoofbeats.

_Sepps. Who made them so fast?_

Shadows from behind rippled across her. Though it forced her to slow, she reached back and unsheathed her sword. Now that same Sepp was running next to her.

Revya skidded, bringing her sword around, pressing her lips together as she felt the blade cut into the Sepp's belly - felt it almost as if the blade were part of her body. The Sepp squealed, tumbling back. She was small, Revya noticed, probably not older than fifteen. Revya tried to collect herself to run again, catch up with Gig, wherever he was - where had he gone? - but she was slammed forward by a punch between her shoulder blades.

She staggered, falling to one hand, almost gashing her arm with her own sword, and the best thing she could do was wrench herself around. It was a terrible move, leaving her half-prone, her stomach, head and throat unguarded. But it was better than being killed from behind.

Oily white fireworks exploded in her eyes as a Sepp pugilist planted a punch in her sternum. She folded forward. One part of her brain was aware that she wasn't in a huge amount of pain and she could still move her torso, so nothing was broken. But if someone didn't give her a time-out and let her throw up for several hours, she was going to die.

* * *

Revya woke to the sensation of someone poking her nose.

She wriggled away. Ugh, Danette. If she didn't kick you black and blue in her sleep, she woke up hours before you and then tried to wake you up in the most underhanded ways possible. Stacking napkins on your forehead. Singing your name in several octaves. Just sitting there, _staring_ at you, which was always the freakiest thing to wake up to. And now this. Nose-poking.

No...wait...it couldn't be Danette, they hadn't shared a room in years. Then...oh, it was Gig then. What the hell was he doing? Granted, he often claimed to be disgusted at how soundly she slept and commented that he could let a phynx loose in the room and she'd sleep through it. But then, he was a light sleeper, even the slightest move she made woke him up, he was such a nuisance sometimes. Poke. Like now.

No. Wait. She knew Gig. He did not poke. When he wanted attention, he said so.

And besides, she wasn't in bed. The bed was comfy. This felt like...cold, hard rock...She was...

Oh...no.

Revya opened her eyes, expecting to see the Sepp pugilist leering over her. Instead, she saw a girl Redflank calf. The calf's wide brown eyes went wider, and she backed out of Revya's line of vision, now seeing only dim overcast sky.

The wind had died down, but she smelled fire. Her midriff hurt, seemed a bit stiff. Cautiously, she turned her head, her vision remaining steady. No concussion then. And, she realized after a moment, she wasn't tied hand and foot. She levered herself up.

A crowd of fifteen or so children sat huddled in a crescent to her left, watching her warily. Each was wrapped in a cloak, some thicker and longer than others. Her eyes were drawn to a dull gleam on the rock. The children were chained together.

Revya met the eyes of a Whirwin boy. His eyes were dark, black, and had no luster. The smell of fire drifted towards her on the wind, but she was suddenly chary of looking away. They could be hiding weapons. Easily.

Then why hadn't they killed her already?

Had Gig escaped?

Slowly, she moved her head just enough to look to her right. It was well into twilight by now, the light of a single bonfire beating on her periphery. There were large shapes around it.

She swallowed, her throat feeling as dry and grooved as the rocks. "So, what's going on?"

The kids didn't answer, even when she turned back to look at them. She sat up, testing. Nobody made any move to restrain her. That didn't mean they wouldn't.

The welt had darkened on her shoulder, as had the bruise on her stomach, a mottled, green-yellow exhibition. There were small cuts all over her, probably from the scramble. They'd taken her sword and the small dagger she carried at her waist. She had a crick in her neck.

Revya randomly settled on a boy with long, bluish hair. She wasn't a stranger to children, but since growing up, she'd never had any close relationship with one. She wasn't exactly sure how she should deal with them. None of these looked even close to ten years old. She tried to imitate Lady Virtuous as she'd sounded when comforting Danette as a child. "What's your name?"

The boy rubbed his nose. "Ball."

Revya tightened her jaw. "Ball." She looked closer at the boy's face. Not far off was the boy with the torn lower lip. There were the twin girls. "Right. You had a ball."

"I remember you," one of the twins said, her haughty voice inflected in a way that reminded Revya of Tricia. "Who are you?" The boy next to her, a Sepp, shoved her in the arm and shook his head quickly.

Revya glanced back at the fire. None of the figures had turned. One thing she knew about kids was that they were all about give and take. "My name's Revya."

"I'm Lily," the girl said, casting an unperturbed look at the Sepp. "My sister's Clara."

"Hi. Now, Lily-" she leaned forward "-what's going on? Who are these people? Don't you live in the city?" One the of the kids sucked in his breath sharply. Revya looked over her shoulder, but no one else had approached them.

Lily shrugged daintily. "Dunno. Our nanna brought us here. She said we're on vacation." The boy shook his head again.

Revya turned to him. "What's going on then?" He shook his head. Revya gave a small nod. "All right. Do any of you know the name Yesterwind?" She glanced around the semi-circle. The light was dim, but if any of them knew the name, they didn't show it. Of course, Revya reasoned, it didn't have to be called Yesterwind. It didn't even have to be a remnant of the old organization; Lobo wasn't the only businessman.

If her suspicions were correct, why did they want her? She was willing to admit she was cute, sure. But she was also twenty five. "How long you been here, Lily?"

"Coupla days." She sighed elaborately. "I hope the vacation's over soon. I wanna go back home."

Revya made herself sound casual. "Any of you know why they captured me?"

She had just resigned herself to getting no answer when the Redflank girl spoke. "Nadanu sometimes gives us mommies."

"Nadanu's the leader?" They didn't answer. "And he gets people to take care of you. Has he captured anyone else?"

Brief silence. "She's dead."

"Ah."

"Settling in?" asked a voice from the firelight.

Revya turned but, due to the flames, couldn't identify the speaker. A few of the adults had turned but no one approached her.

Testing on both sides. Not liking to make the next move, Revya stood, refusing to wince from her bruise, and walked over to the fire. Six of the figures rose, and she tensed, angling one foot to pivot and run, but they diverged from the fire, walking to the perimeters of the camp, leaving her alone with the speaker. He was seated on a threadbare cushion, and he gestured, inviting her to sit at his side.

She remained standing. "You shouldn't hold my sword like that."

The unmasked Dracon smiled at the onyx blade, which he'd angled, tip to the sky, in his arm, scepter-like. "I don't think you should worry about that. What did you say your name was?"

Revya hoped - vainly - she'd be able to bypass the power play. "I'm Revya and you're Nadanu."

He smiled at her now. She hadn't seen many male Dracons unmasked - in fact, only Odie on a regular basis, and that had sometimes felt like a gross invasion of privacy. This Dracon was rather good-looking with fine features and dark brown hair. He had red eyes, like Preacher Kanan. Like Revya herself.

"I'm sorry we had to leap on you like that. If you'd just been hit by the arrows, we could have avoided the kerfuffle. But just before you were killed, I remembered that we needed a woman your age."

Revya wished she wasn't standing so close to the fire's light, afraid her worry would show in her face. Despite the blazing heat, her skin prickled with cold. "What happened to my companion?"

He shrugged. "If he's not dead, he's still being chased by my men. Won't you have a seat?"

She wouldn't think about that. "You're slave traders, right?"

"That's a concise way of putting it. I like your directness. It's necessary when working with children. Some of the girls we've gotten have been terrible. Where do you come from?"

Revya lifted her gaze from him, trying to see across the rocky expanse. Her closeness to the fire had blinded her somewhat. Clouds of stars overhead. The dim outlines of boulders. She thought she saw some posted sentries, and to the north was a sparse forest. Was there any conceivable advantage out there? Or, more importantly, right here? "Around."

"Do sit down. Would you like some tea? Well, if you don't want it... Do you have any kin?"

"No."

"Perfect. That's really very helpful. Married?"

In the distance, the silhouettes of two sentries came together to talk. She heard a muted animal shriek from the forest. "Yes."

"Not so good. Well, if he sends out a search party, we'll kill them. Children?"

"No," she answered, a bit coolly.

"I'm sure this will be a great learning experience for you. The children need a firm hand. A young Whirwin of ours escaped us just a few days ago. I swear, brilliant really, he almost made it to the city. But as much as I admire enterprise, I can't allow that sort of behavior. You know, if you'd like to sit down, I wouldn't be adverse to it."

Out in the darkness, a man screamed.


	3. Chapter 3

3

Nadanu narrowed his eyes, then raised one brow, peering in the direction of the forest. "That must be your friend."

"Or one of yours," said Revya, trying to sound calm despite the pulse battering her veins. "I don't think Gig's capable of hitting a note that high."

"You'd be surprised." Nadanu withdrew a hanky to dab at his nose. "People under stress can do the most extraordinary things. Jerome! Verena! What's going on out there?"

One of the silhouettes turned, and a woman's voice called out, "There's something going on the forest. The trees are - what the-?"

"I hate it when they cut off like that," Nadanu muttered, shrugging the onyx blade to one side and standing. With a faint sparkle, a spike-headed staff appeared in his hand. "Well, whatever it is, I can deal with it. I might try summoning a black hole again...was a bit messy last time, but I think I've got the chant pronounced correctly now. I'll need time to prepare a sacrifice though. Tell me, my hearing is very bad: Is there a sort of crashing sound coming from the forest?"

"Mm," Revya said vaguely, half of her attention fixed on the rustling din coming from the forest, the other half focused on the onyx blade. If she moved quickly, lunged far enough, and miraculously missed the bonfire, she might be able to grab it before Nadanu could react. Judging by the screams springing up from the forest, she'd need it.

"Damn, what's going on?" With a dramatic billow of his gray cape, Nadanu swept past her, towards the sentries, and Revya recovered her sword easily, though she noticed that it was shaking on the ground - in fact, the very rock was trembling - once - twice. The third time nearly cast her to her feet. Not earthquakes, she guessed. Footsteps. Large footsteps. From the forest.

Sword in hand, she turned back to the children, almost swallowed in the darkness. Did she have time to saw through their chains? Could her sword even do that?

Then the forest seemed to explode and the monster blasted into view. Its head bounced on its spindly neck, its boat-sized leaves flapped hysterically. It was the biggest Deathblossom she had ever seen.

"Attack!" Nadanu shouted. "Damn you, it'll crush us all!"

Screams ensued. Revya turned towards the kids again. Chained or not, they were still able to move and were scrabbling out of the monster's path.

"Fight it!" Nadanu shouted. "No, Jerome - dodge - dodge - Damn you healers, get your asses over here! And - who the hell is that? - Agh - no! NO!"

The Deathblossom colossus loomed high above the camp. Revya darted aside as it stepped towards her, spraying gravel into the air, but it didn't attack. As it passed by, something hot and salty splattered across her face, the screams overwhelmed by a high keening cry from the monster. Was it - was it whimpering?

"You stupid bitch! Don't just _stand_ there!" Something shadowy thunked into her, then grabbed her left wrist. Then ran. Pain shot through her lower arm, burned coal-like in her elbow, but she ran too, recognizing both the voice and the tactless way of conducting business. She was sure they were going to fall and break their necks on the terrain. For a few moments, they followed the monster, then they turned sharply. The shouting from the camp died away. They turned again, and Revya felt long grass slapping her legs. Then it was quiet. She smelled trees. After a moment, she could distinguish their shadowy height all around.

Gig slid to a halt. Revya thwapped into him, then fell to her knees, panting for breath. After a moment, Gig lowered himself next to her. "Praise and gratitude now."

"'Stupid bitch'?" Revya demanded, voice still ragged after the run.

"What else do you think you were being, standing there with your mouth open?"

"I'm sure my mouth wasn't open...Ah, damn, Gig, I think you dislocated my elbow." She tried to straighten her left arm and failed, pain still threading up.

She was finally able to make out Gig's shape in the darkness. Not apologizing, he grasped her elbow between thumb and forefinger, angled her arm so that her hand was palm-up, then rotated her arm. With a pop, her lower arm snapped back into place. Gig sniffed theatrically. "Any more boo boos for Uncle Gig?" When she didn't answer, he asked more seriously, "You all right, kid?"

"I am now." She reached over and found his shoulder. "Praise and gratitude, Gig."

"Don't get soppy yet." He rose. "We need to watch that camp."

She followed suit. "Tell me about it." They started off at walk, she following Gig, as he seemed to have some notion of where they were going. "I'm worried about those children."

"What children?"

"With the bandits." She carefully felt her way around a decaying log. "They're slave traders."

"Cute," Gig said. "It couldn't just be bandits, they had to be kid-hawking bandits. More importantly - watch the woodchuck hole - we don't want to run into the camp again. I was able to do some scouting earlier, and I think I've figured out where we are."

"That's right." The ground was rising under their feet, rocks studding the underbrush. "They were chasing you. How'd you get away?"

"Efficiently."

They hit level ground. "Ah."

"It's always been my job to guide souls back into the cycle."

"So you were scouting?" She frowned, not exactly with petulance; she didn't like the off-kilter feeling the idea gave her. "You weren't worried about me?"

She heard Gig sigh. "Don't boo hoo, I'd ascertained you were all right." He stopped abruptly. "What, did they-"

She let him trail off, smiling at his reaction. "Did they...?"

He swore. "Obviously, they didn't." They resumed walking again. "Anyway, while I was scouting around, I picked up a friend."

"The Deathblossom of Legend?"

"The thing lives in this forest. Or lived. I dunno if it'll want to come back. Anyway, it was all bluster. Wept if I made a face at it. Around dinnertime, I'd figured out that whenever I waved my scythe at it, it ran in the opposite direction."

"So you decided to herd it into the camp."

"It was disgustingly easy. Pity it's such a tenderass, I wanted to see some more blood. Okay, this place is as good as any." They sat down on a small scarp of bald rock, still shaded by trees. "In the morning, we should have a clear view of the camp."

Revya sighed, wincing at the bruise on her stomach. "I'll take first watch. I got a forced nap this afternoon."

"Nah, you sleep."

"I'm too keyed up."

"Then don't."

The moon had already set. After a moment, Revya leaned her shoulder against Gig's. "I'm worried about those children."

"Already said that."

"Yeah."

She let there be silence for a moment, waiting for Gig to speak. "You want us to whale in and save them? Kid, I can only find one ecological freak per forest."

"If we can get to the Village, do you think it's possible to bring a force back and find the camp again?"

"Doubtful. It's too easy to hide up here."

Revya sighed, studying the expanse of darkness. "Damn. I don't want to feel helpless now."

Gig didn't answer. Revya wished she hadn't spoken. She knew he was right.

Maybe she dozed. She wasn't sure what time it was when she lifted her head from Gig's shoulder, gnawing an idea in her mind. She heard the slight pop of bone as Gig yawned. "What's up?"

"I just don't know." She ran her hand through her hair. Despite her enforced nap, she had to make a concerted effort not to close her eyes and go to sleep. "I'm thinking, if we can't save those kids, maybe I should've just killed them."

Silence.

"It seems like the only way to free them. You die and right then you're able to start over. Maybe their next lives will treat them better."

"Or-"

"-maybe not, I knew you'd say it."

"Actually, I was going to mention that none of their lives are over." Gig leaned back and stretched. "Unless you're about to surprise me with prophetic powers, you don't really know how this life will treat them. Ultimately."

He never got bored of finding ways to prove her wrong. "I wish I could do something." She stood and paced, trying to loosen the joints in her legs. "You talk about cycles? Think about what every day must be like for them."

She heard him swing to his feet. "Eh, maybe there's more karma than I thought. You never know. Maybe they were murderers and rapists in their past lives."

"You _told_ me everything was erased after we die."

"So it is. For instance, your soul. I happen to know in your last life, you were-"

"The son of Median."

"Exactly. And what does that have to do with you? Nothing. But it still came back to bite you. Now, in your life before _that_..."

She turned to face him. In the rising light, he was still a shadow. "What?"

"In your life before that, you raised poodles."

"Gig."

"You were a little old lady with an ass the size of Orviska, and you lived alone with thirty poodles with rhyming names. And in the life before that, you were a soldier with short-term memory problems. You married two different girls in two different cities. Luckily for you, they were both named Gwendolyn."

"Gig," she said between gritted teeth, half laughing.

"And in the life before that, you were a performance artist. Everyone hated you. You covered yourself in silverware and danced barefoot on coals."

He'd stepped close to her, and she shoved against his chest. "You don't remember any of that."

"I don't hear myself laughing."

"I swear, you're lying."

"It doesn't matter if I am or not. You're a clean slate at birth. You don't hold onto past shit."

"Yeah. Like us."

"We're special, one-time screw-ups."

She leaned up and kissed him. "That's probably for the best."

He held her for a moment, but - "Down, kid - _down_ - no more of that. I know I'm irresistible as well as indestructable, but we have work to do. It's dawn. If you're so hell-bent on saving those tots, we have to get home fast."

* * *

Revya tried to ignore the hunger bubbling in her stomach. If they managed, by a miracle, to avoid the bandits and find their way back to the road, they could be home by lunch.

"Which is going to be more difficult," she murmured to Gig as they paused to rest, "mustering everyone and finding the camp again or getting Danette to calm down?"

Gig spun his scythe experimentally. "You distract the cow, I'll knock her out from behind."

After less than an hour, Revya almost gasped. "I see the road! Gig, you actually did it!"

He raised an eyebrow. "What's this _actually_ did it crap? Do you think I'm not - SHIT!"

Shit, with that inflection and level of intensity, was Gig-parlance for "DUCK!", so Revya ducked, feeling a fireball pass overhead. She and Gig scrambled backwards, allowing the swell of their rock to act as a rudimentary defense.

"That came from the road," Revya muttered.

"Not a bad idea. They'd guess we have to go there."

"And I'm guessing they don't want us to tell anyone about their camp." Revya unsheathed the onyx blade, the feel of its hilt as familiar as her own skin. "What do you think? Divide? I'll go first and draw the mage fire."

"Seems like the best idea. Damn, I wish we had an archer to take down that mage."

"Can't be helped." She gave Gig a short look, then started around the right side of the boulder, using its curvature for coverage until the very last moment. Then she blasted into the open.

The only good thing about mage fire was that she could see it coming before it hit. Still, she just barely dodged, swerving a moment before continuing towards the road. In the corner of her eye, she saw a corresponding movement that must be Gig.

Fire rolled through the blue sky towards her. She ducked and finally had a clear view of their enemies, a mage, two swordswomen and Nadanu himself in the rear. Gig, ahead of her, had already engaged both Sepps, scythe and swords flashing. She hesitated, wanting to help him, then surged towards the mage, who was struggling to ignite another fireball, casting fearful looks at Nadanu.

Revya didn't like the way Nadanu just let her run up to the mage and stab her.

"Oh, don't mind me," Nadanu said solicitously, tapping the butt of his spike-topped staff against his toe. "I'd worry about your friend there."

She turned to look at Gig - then twisted around to dodge the spike Nadanu thrust at her head, her own sword swinging up. He parried it, surprisingly strong. He spoke, still in that cloying, cajoling way. "Don't overextend yourself, bright eyes. It's really no trouble to kill you if you hold still."

One of the Sepps screamed behind Revya, and she heard a body hit the road. She circled to the left, looking for an opening. "It's people like you who make me hope there _is_ karma in the next life." She thrust.

The blade connected, though briefly. Nadanu gave ground, a thin worm of blood slithering down his side. "I don't happen to believe in reincarnation."

"Why not?" She parried his staff, then parried it again. "Everything works in cycles."

Nadanu rolled his eyes, even as he blocked her next slash. "They do _not_. Oh good, it looks like dear Janice is back on her feet. Your friend isn't long for this life."

Revya refused to look. "Of course everything works in cycles. You swing, I parry. I swing, you parry, I-" She drove the onyx blade into his stomach.

Nadanu staggered back, holding the wound, his breath gurgling. Revya knew the wound was bad, but she wasn't sure if it were fatal.

"Nice cycle," he gasped. "Does it work that way every time?" Raising his staff to shoulder height, he lunged forward, just as Revya swung her blade to cut off his head.

Gig, fighting the last Sepp, saw something glitter out of the corner of his eye, heard something scrape. The onyx blade wind-milled against the road, spraying drops of blood. Without thinking about it, he sliced the Sepp's stomach open.

Nadanu's head rolled into a ditch along the side of the road. By then, Gig was running. He kicked aside the staff from where it had fallen across Revya, dropping to his knees.

The first thing he tried was strapping his belt across the wound in her chest, trying to force it closed, but she was still breathing. The wound seemed to breathe with her, opening and closing with wet, coughing sounds. He shoved the heel of one hand against her breastbone, the other against her sternum, trying to stop the blood flow with pressure. She was paler than he'd ever seen her before, looked paler still with the splatter of blood around her mouth. She was still fighting to breathe, her eyes opening.

"Kid!"

He felt her chest arch as she tried to take a deep breath. He applied more pressure, holding the wound closed, fingers burrowed into the tissue. She shivered, not breathing for a long moment. He could feel her heart struggling to beat between his hands.

He thought, for ages, that she was still breathing shallowly when her heart was only trying to contract. Even that stopped.

He stared, and for a moment, he wanted to smash her face against the ground, crush each feature. He wanted her to be cold, stiff, bloated, decayed, anything but recognizable. Anyone but herself. He wanted to see a stranger dead and go home to find her waiting for him.

Her skin was still warm. Her eyes were still open. His hands still held her wound closed.

Miles away, a child was born.


End file.
